Pope's UK Visit Continues to Generate Response

The Brisith Government’s coordinator for the recent papal visit to the United Kingdom, Lord Christopher Patten was in Rome this weekend for a conference on the future of European society. He talked to Philippa Hitchen about the success of the Pope's visit, about reactions from the Catholic Church in Britain and about the serious debate he hopes it will continue to generate....

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“I think the reasons are principally threefold…firstly the Pope himself….this was a hugely demanding programme which he managed with great élan in a language with which – it’s no criticism – he’s not comfortable, so to have done it all as wonderfully well as he did is a great tribute to him personally.
Secondly it was a stick in the eye for metropolitan cynicism…what made the trip a success from the very beginning was the turnout of the crowds, Catholic and non-Catholic alike…..
Thirdly, not just the messenger and the people to whom the message was delivered, but the message itself…..thoughtful, quite challenging but I can’t remember a recent visit by any world figure which has left behind so much debate about serious issues.”

What do hope might be the longer term impact of the visit?
“I’d like to see members of faith groups recognising the wisdom of what the Chief Rabbi said – one of the characteristics of the visit was the very fine speeches which it elicited from others, particularly the Chief Rabbi and the Archbishop of Canterbury...he noted that one of the things that put people off faith was the difficulties faith groups have had over the years in working together and not fighting each other, so first of all I hope faith groups will recognise what they have in common..
Secondly I hope that it will make people who belong to faith groups more self confident about saying so….and end the ways in which alleged political correctness has led to the siege of people who belong to faith groups….I also hope it will encourage secularists to be serious rather than abusive… and I hope that they will recognise there’s a serious debate to be had.”

What about reactions from within the Catholic community itself? There are those within the Catholic Church in Britain who are keen to engage in serious debate yet feel their voices aren’t being heard?
“Yes indeed…..there are people who feel very passionately about issues like gender, the role of women in the Church…a Church which would not exist had it not been for the way women behaved on Good Friday, when all the men ran away…there are people who are very worried about attitudes to gays in the church, I’ve always assumed that there are a lot of devout gays in the Catholic Church and that God must love them particularly strongly because of the extent of the discrimination they’ve felt over the years, not least, in the past, from parts of the Catholic Church itself…”

You’re here at this Rome (Pontignano) conference discussing the future of European society….what else can the Churches do to become more effective players on the European stage?
“Many of the founding fathers were very strong intellectual Catholics…and a lot of the foundations of the EU you can trace back to Catholic Social Teaching over the last 100 or so years…so I think that Catholicism has played a large part in the way that the EU has been created….and I hope it will play an important part in the next few years in ensuring the EU isn’t inward looking and continues to offer a model which combines prosperity with social solidarity and political stability.”